


magie rapide

by appleofmyrye



Category: DC Extended Universe, DCU, DCU (Comics), Justice League (2017), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, everyone is bi I don't make the rules, speed plus magic equals incredible, zatanna and Barry deserve to be best friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 14:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13813458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appleofmyrye/pseuds/appleofmyrye
Summary: Barry thought now that Steppenwolf was gone, the world would return to the slightly less bizarre thing it was before. Apparently not.





	magie rapide

She pops up when he’s without the team, running around Central City.

Pops up is the accurate phrasing, too. One minute it’s just him and the inept mugger who’s apparently never heard of The Flash, and the next he’s gone. 

In his place is a magician’s assistant. She’s tall, with taller stilettos, and long black hair.

“I really do hate turning them into frogs.” She says.

The mugger isn’t gone, as it turns out. He’s just a frog now. A frog. A FROG.

Barry thought now that Steppenwolf was gone, the world would return to the slightly less bizarre thing it was before. Apparently not.

“Who are you? What did you just do? Where did you come from?” He shoots off, rapid fire. 

“Zatanna. I turned him into a frog. It’s not that hard. I came from Gotham.” She sighs, exasperated. “You’re the Flash. A... mutual friend told me where you were.”

Barry lowers his voice. “Batman sent you? You know him?” There is no way Bruce Wayne would send someone Barry didn’t know to pick him up, especially a women who looks younger than he his.

(Sure, she can hold her own, the frog is evidence of that. But really?)

Zatanna grins. “He and my father were friends.” Her smile gets sadder. “My Dad died a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been staying with Br- Batman.”

That’s impossible. Barry tried his best to win Bruce over, and it had failed. Hardcore. There is no way that this kid (she’s younger than he is, for sure!) is living with Bruce. Bruce is almost untouchably cold sometimes.

“I think he really misses having someone living there. God knows where Dick is, and Jason-“ She cuts off sharply. “You probably already know this.”

What Barry knows about Jason is next to nothing, only that you can’t say any word that starts with a hard J or Bruce whips his head around like a Jurassic Park raptor and immediately adopts an emotional mask. Zatanna knows infinitely more than he does. Barry could us a friend.

“I know nothing about him! He had kids? They were his kids?” Barry babbles excitedly. 

“Not exactly. I don’t think it’s my place to tell you about them. You’ll probably meet Dick at some point anyway, if he ever resurfaces. We should probably go back.”

“What?” He asks.

“I was sent to get you. Something’s going down. Diana is already there, and someone super rugged-looking.” She says.

“Aquaman. Sweet! Something pretty big must be going down!”

“I hope so. I’ve never been able to pick a big enough fight.”

Zatanna is the only person with powers he’s ever met within only a couple years of him, besides Victor. He could really use another friend.

“Race you there?”

“Oh, honey, mine’s instan-“

He’s gone before she finishes the words. 

————

“You cheated!”

“I never heard the rules.” Barry says. He’s smiling so hard it hurts. He’d beaten Zatanna by less than a tenth of a second.

Zatanna smiles too. “No one said go.”

He’s laughing like a madman, clutching his stomach. After a minute, Zatanna starts to laugh too. 

It’s all fun and games until he looks up and spots Bruce glaring down at him.

“Mr. Wayne, Bruce, sir, hi! Hi. Sorry. We just got here.”

Bruce is still glowering, but to be fair, he’s always glowering. “Zee, Barry, we aren’t going to need you for this one.”

Zatanna immediately becomes more serious. “What? I had to go out and get him and everything! Why not?”

Bruce actually does crack a teeny, tiny smile. “I just wanted you to make friends, Zee.”

Which is a huge win in Barry’s book. Zatanna could easily kick his ass if she had enough preparation time.

He likes her already.

———— 

Become friends they do. They gossip like hell about everything and nothing. Today, it’s “Who’s already sleeping with who” day. 

They gossip in spurts while they wait for their turn to attempt to beat the crap out of one of the team members on the mat. Right now, Diana is holding back against someone he’s never seen before, a woman with enormous wings protruding from her shoulders and a mace. Apparently, she’s a new recruit.

He and Zatanna sit some 50 feet away, on an equipment box. Zatanna swings her legs and kicks the box at approximately 1 beat a second. 

(Keeping rhythm has been an easy way to manage the raw power of the speed force that courses through him from time to time.)

“What about Diana and Bruce?”

Zatanna wrinkles her nose. “Nah. Bruce reminds me of my father - he wouldn’t last with her. Plus - she’s still hung up on the pilot guy, but who can blame her - have you seen pictures of him? The guy’s a dead ringer for Chris Pine, and Pine’s a snack.“

“Agreed.” Chris Pine is definitely on the top of Barry’s Chris list. “Diana and Clark?”

“Eh..” She shrugs. “He seems pretty happy with Lois, but if you want my opinion,” she leans closer and lowers her voice, “that’s not going to last much longer.”

“What? Why?” Barry can’t imagine Clark without Lois.

“It’s not that she isn’t gorgeous - she is, anyone would be lucky if she loved them - but the psychological strain of him coming back from the dead? Things can’t just go back to the way they were. Something has to change.” She leans back, satisfactorily. 

“What is he going to do?”

“More like who. You didn’t here it from me, but I’m pretty sure that Clark and Br-“

“You know I can hear you, right?” 

Diana has finished her fight with Wings and is standing directly in front of them. Zatanna smiles awkwardly.

“Sorry, Diana.”

“You’re probably right.” Diana walks away without another word. 

Barry looks at Zatanna in astonishment.

“About which?”

————

They’re unstoppable when they fight together. Barry has only gotten faster since the fight with Steppenwolf, and Zatanna wields magic like a sword. She’s also light enough that he can carry her. They’ve developed a technique where he launches her into the air while running at full speed, she screams “evig em thgilf!”, and flies at speed force speed into combat with an arsenal of spells just waiting to be cast.

Usually, she fucking obliterates whatever they’re attacking. Barry usually tries to avoid running into a wall after that. Bruce bans them from doing it inside the Batcave because of the dents Barry’s put in the wall.

After they’ve been deemed actual combat ready and can go back to doing whatever they want for the day (Barry has to constantly remind Zatanna he has a real job), he starts to take Zatanna out with him when he’s patrolling the streets of Central City. It reduces the level of crime to a point lower than he could do himself. 

Then, they always have time for Barry to find Iris, no matter where she is in the city. Zatanna never asks a question, just raises one eyebrow when he peers at Iris from a discrete location.

When he finally confides his crush on Iris to Zatanna, she laughs her ass off. “Honey, you thought I wouldn’t guess?” She sputters, bent over with laughter. “From the time I spend with you while you watch her, I think she’s pretty cute too.” Barry glares at her.

“What? It’s the truth, and you think so too.”

She’s right, of course. 

He doesn’t know much about Zatanna’s relationships. Zatanna never tells him much about her boyfriend, only that he’s a chain-smoking, blond, British demon hunter. In retrospect, that may be more than enough.

Bruce definitely disapproves.

Zatanna loves to tell the stories of her exes. She’s overflowing with the stories of the gorgeous redhead who kicked Zatanna out of her house when she found out she wasn’t human (Homo magi, Homo sapiens, they’re basically the same!), the man who had only liked her because of what her magic could do for him (she had turned him into a frog for a short period of time), and the blonde girl who had turned out to be a spy for MI-5. When she talks, she conjures small figures to act out the scenes as she talks. It’s incredible.

Barry can’t remember what life was like before he had a best friend.

He doesn’t want to.

**Author's Note:**

> I just really want Barry Allen and Zatanna to be best friends.


End file.
